Uri Avnery: An Apology

An Apology

THIS WEEK, the
Prime Minister of Canada made a dramatic statement in
Parliament: he apologized to the indigenous peoples of his
country for the injustices done to them for generations by
successive Canadian governments.

This way, White Canada
tries to make peace with the native nations, whose country
their forefathers conquered and whose culture their rulers
have tried to wipe out.

APOLOGIZING FOR past wrongs has
become a part of modern political culture.

That is never
an easy thing to do. Cynics might say: nothing to it. Just
words. And words, after all, are a cheap commodity. But in
fact, such acts have a profound significance. A human being
- and even more so, a whole nation - always finds it hard to
admit to iniquities performed and to atrocities committed.
It means a rewriting of the historical narrative that forms
the basis of their national cohesion. It necessitates a
drastic change in the schoolbooks and in the national
outlook. In general, governments are averse to this, because
of the nationalistic demagogues and hate-mongers who infest
every country.

The President of France has apologized on
behalf of his people for the misdeeds of the Vichy regime,
which turned Jews over to the Nazi exterminators. The Czech
government has apologized to the Germans for the mass
expulsion of the German population at the end of World War
II. Germany, of course, has apologized to the Jews for the
unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust. Quite recently, the
government of Australia has apologized to the Aborigines.
And even in Israel, a feeble effort was made to heal a
grievous domestic wound, when Ehud Barak apologized to the
Oriental Jews for the discrimination they have suffered for
many years.

But we face a much more difficult and complex
problem. It concerns the roots of our national existence in
this country.

I BELIEVE that peace between us and the
Palestinian people - a real peace, based on real
conciliation - starts with an apology.

In my mind's eye I
see the President of the State or the Prime Minister
addressing a special extraordinary session of the Knesset
and making a historic speech on the following
lines:

*************

MADAM SPEAKER,
Honorable Knesset,

On behalf of the State of Israel and
all its citizens, I address today the sons and daughters of
the Palestinian people, wherever they are.

We recognize
the fact that we have committed against you a historic
injustice, and we humbly ask your forgiveness.

When the
Zionist movement decided to establish a national home in
this country, which we call Eretz Yisrael and you call
Filastin, it had no intention of building our state on the
ruins of another people. Indeed, almost no one in the
Zionist movement had ever been in the country before the
first Zionist Congress in 1897, or even had any idea about
the actual situation here.

The burning desire of the
founding fathers of this movement was to save the Jews of
Europe, where the dark clouds of hatred for the Jews were
gathering. In Eastern Europe, pogroms were raging, and all
over Europe there were signs of the process that would
eventually lead to the terrible Holocaust, in which six
million Jews perished.

This basic aim attached itself to
the profound devotion of the Jews, throughout the
generations, to the country in which the Bible, the defining
text of our people, was written, and to the city of
Jerusalem, towards which the Jews have turned for thousands
of years in their prayers.

The Zionist founders who came
to this country were pioneers who carried in their hearts
the most lofty ideals. They believed in national liberation,
freedom, justice and equality. We are proud of them. They
certainly did not dream of committing an injustice of
historic dimensions.

ALL THIS does not justify what
happened afterwards. The creation of the Jewish national
home in this country has involved a profound injustice to
you, the people who lived here for generations.

We cannot
ignore anymore the fact that in the war of 1948 - which is
the War of Independence for us, and the Naqba for you - some
750 thousand Palestinians were compelled to leave their
homes and lands. As for the precise circumstances of this
tragedy I propose the establishment of a "Committee for
Truth and Reconciliation"' composed of experts from your and
from our side, whose conclusions will from then on be
incorporated in the schoolbooks, yours and ours.

We cannot
ignore anymore the fact that for 60 years of conflict and
war, you have been prevented from realizing your natural
right to independence in your own free national state, a
right confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly
resolution of November 29, 1947, which also formed the legal
basis for the establishment of the State of Israel.

For
all this, we owe you an apology, and I express it hereby
with all my heart.

The Bible tells us: "Whoso confesseth
(his crimes) and forsakes them shall have mercy" (Proverbs
28:13). Clearly, confession does not suffice. We have also
to forsake the wrongs we have done in the past.

It is
impossible to turn the wheel of history back and restore the
situation that existed in the country in 1947, much as
Canada - or the United States, for that matter - cannot go
back 200 years. We must build our common future on the joint
desire to move forwards, to heal what can be healed and
repair what can be repaired without inflicting new wounds,
committing new injustices and causing more human
tragedies.

I urge you to accept our apology in the spirit
in which it is offered. Let us work together for a just,
viable and practical solution of our century-old conflict -
a solution that may not fulfill all justified aspirations
nor right all wrongs, but which will allow both our peoples
to live their lives in freedom, peace and prosperity.

This
solution is clear for all to see. We all know what it is. It
has emerged from our painful experiences, hammered out by
the lessons of our sufferings, crystallized by the exertions
of the best of our minds - yours as well as ours.

This
solution means, simply: You have the same rights as we. We
have the same rights as you: to live in a state of our own,
under our own flag, governed by laws of our own making,
ruled by a government freely elected by ourselves -
hopefully a good one.

One of the fundamental commandments
of our religion - as of yours and every other - was
pronounced 2000 years ago by Rabbi Hillel: Do not unto
others, what you do not want others to do to you.

This
means in practice: your right to establish at once the free
and sovereign State of Palestine in all the territories
occupied by Israel in 1967, which will be accepted as a full
member of the United Nations.

The borders of June 4, 1967,
will be restored. I hope that we can agree, in free
negotiations, to minimal exchanges of territory beneficial
to both sides.

Jerusalem, which is so dear to all of us,
must be the capital of both our states - West Jerusalem,
including the Western Wall, the capital of Israel, East
Jerusalem, including al-Haram al-Sharif, which we call the
Temple Mount, the capital of Palestine. What is Arab shall
be yours, what is Jewish shall be ours. Let us work together
to keep the city, as a living reality, open and united.

We
shall evacuate the Israeli settlements, which have caused so
much suffering and iniquities to you, and bring the settlers
home, except from those small areas which will be joined to
Israel in the framework of freely agreed swaps of territory.
We shall also dismantle all the paraphernalia of the
occupation, both physical and institutional.

We must
approach with open hearts, compassion and common sense, the
task of finding a just and viable solution for the terrible
tragedy of the refugees and their decendants. Each refugee
family must be granted a free choice between the various
solutions: repatriation and resettlement in the State of
Palestine, with generous assistance; staying where they are
or emigration to any country of their choice, also with
generous assistance; and yes - coming back to the territory
of Israel in acceptable numbers, agreed by us. The refugees
themselves must be a full partner in all our efforts.

I
trust that our two states - Israel and Palestine, living
side by side in this beloved but small country, will quickly
come together on the human, social, economic, technological
and cultural levels, creating a relationship that will not
only guarantee our security, but also rapid development and
prosperity for all.

Together we will work for peace and
prosperity throughout our region, based on close relations
with all the countries of the area.

Committed to peace and
vowing to create a better future for our children and
grandchildren, let us rise to our feet and bow our heads in
memory of the countless victims of our conflict, Jews and
Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians - a conflict that has
lasted far too long.

*************

SUCH
A SPEECH is, to my mind, absolutely essential for opening a
new chapter in the history of this country.

In decades of
meeting with Palestinians of all walks of life, I have come
to the conclusion that the emotional aspects of the conflict
are no less - and perhaps even more - important than the
political ones. A profound sense of injustice permeates the
minds and actions of all Palestinians. Unconscious or
half-conscious guilt feelings are troubling the souls of the
Israelis, creating a deep conviction that Arabs will never
make peace with us.

I do not know when such a speech will
be possible. Many imponderable factors will have an impact
on that. But I do know that without it, mere peace
agreements, reached between haggling diplomats, will not
suffice. As the Oslo agreements have shown, building an
artificial island in a sea of stormy emotions just will not
do.

THE PUBLIC apology by the Canadian Prime Minister is
not the only thing we can learn from that North American
country.

43 years ago, the Canadian government took an
extraordinary step in order to make peace between the
English-speaking majority and the French-speaking minority
among their citizens. That relationship had remained an open
wound from the time the British conquered French Canada some
250 years ago. It was decided to replace the Canadian
national flag, which was based on the British "Union Jack",
with a completely new national flag, featuring the maple
leaf.

On this occasion, the Speaker of the Senate said:
"The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it,
beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada
without distinction of race, language, belief or
opinion."

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